


Mr Snaps

by AquaMarina (LittlePandemonium)



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:48:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29967993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittlePandemonium/pseuds/AquaMarina
Summary: Alan loses something of his and ropes his brothers into helping him find it.
Relationships: Tracy Family - Relationship
Kudos: 6





	Mr Snaps

**Author's Note:**

> Something a little silly I came up with.
> 
> Hope it makes you smile! c:

“Hey Gordon? You haven’t seen Mr Snaps lurking around anywhere, have you?”

Gordon lowered the magazine he was reading to see his younger brother. “Come again?”

“Mr Snaps has gone missing.” Alan repeated, stress creeping into his voice. “I don’t know where he’s gotten to and it’s almost feeding time.”

Gordon pulled his magazine back up, entirely disinterested. “Well where did you last see him?”

“He was in his tank!” Alan replied huffly, frustrated by his brother’s general unhelpfulness. “You know, the tank in my bathroom?”

“And he’s not in there now?”

“No.”

“So you let him out?”

“Of course not! He’s obviously escaped!”

“Mmkay.”

Alan scowled. “This is serious, Gordon! He could bite someone!”

“He’s probably just looking for a swamp or something.” Gordon turned a page. 

Alan grabbed his brother’s Scuba Diving Weekly and tossed it aside. He then clutched Gordon’s calves with the most force he could muster, effectively pinning him to the sofa. The blonde then stared at him with a serious expression, hoping the puppy dog eyes would still work. “You’ve gotta help me find him!”

“Why do I have to do it?” Gordon groaned.

“You’re the marine expert!”

“Alligators aren’t marine animals, Alan. They’re reptiles. EVERYONE knows that.”

“Gordon!” Alan snapped.

Gordon rolled his eyes and slowly dragged himself up. “Fine, fine, I’ll help. But you owe me.” he prodded his brother’s chest.

“Okay, okay, fine. Whatever. Come on.” 

Alan led his brother towards the sleeping quarters of the Tracy household. He walked down the passageway until the door with the embossed rocket curved around a sign that delicately spelled out ‘Alan’s Room’ came into view. Alan cautiously pushed the door open, making sure his alligator wasn’t behind it, before opening it fully and stepping inside.

Gordon whistled at the state of his younger brother’s room. His bed covers were slumped over the side of the bed frame, his clothes were littered across the floor and his curtains were still shut, the early morning sunlight softly penetrating through them, giving the room a red hue. 

“You dropped a bomb in here?”

Alan rolled his eyes. “Shut up. I’ve only just woken up.”

“No wonder you can’t find your alligator. He’s probably buried under this lot!” Gordon swiped up a pair of Alan’s shorts, throwing them onto his bed. 

Alan made his way into the adjoining bathroom and after checking to see if his reptile was hiding anywhere in the room, he called his brother over. Gordon swaggered into the bathroom and over to the large tank that normally housed Alan’s pet. He examined it closely.

Alan watched his brother with interest. “Any ideas?”

Gordon tapped the glass before observing the roof. A jagged hole was carved out in the corner. “Ah.”

“What?”

“Mr Snaps decided he had enough of Stalag 17 it seems. The roof’s broken.” he turned to his sibling. “Do you ever do maintenance on this thing? There are cracks everywhere.”

“No.” Alan huffed, “Kyrano does it.”

“And leaves it in a state like this? I don’t think so.”

“Okay, fine, I do it! This pet-looking-after-nonsense isn’t really my forte!” 

Gordon rolled his eyes. “So this is technically your fault.” 

“Well, yes, but-“

“You’re so silly, Alan.” Gordon let out a little giggle and removed the lid. “I best get Brains to take a look at this.”

“Okay. I’ll clean up in here and see if I can find him in the meantime.”

“Good luck.” Gordon saluted his brother before leaving.

~~~~~

After delivering the lid to Brains, who was already up and pottering around in his lab, Gordon strolled back towards the sleeping area and stepped past John’s room, peering in through the door which was slightly ajar. Despite this, he couldn’t hear any movement so assumed John was still asleep. 

His older brother had taken ill with the flu so had been ordered down from Thunderbird Five to the island to recover. He’d been sleeping a lot more than usual since coming back to the island, which had annoyed him more than he liked to admit. Everyone knew the astronaut loved to stargaze and generally spent most of his evenings up watching the stars.

As Alan’s term in the space station wasn’t due for a few more days, Brains and Tin-Tin had decided to complete some maintenance checks on Thunderbird 5, and had been installing some new systems. The downloads meant that the satellite could be placed on automatic until Alan was ready to fly back out there.

“Hey Gordon.”

Gordon clutched the door frame to stop himself from visibly jumping. “Mornin’ Scott! How was your run?”

“Fine thanks, was pretty beautiful out there during the sunrise.” he nodded in appreciation. “I was just bringing John some tea.” Scott pushed the door open.

“You mean he’s awake?” 

“Of course I’m awake!” came John’s raspy voice from inside the room. As his brothers entered, John pulled himself up in bed, taking the mug off Scott with an appreciative nod. “Scott woke me up going for his run.”

Scott frowned. “I only woke him up because he’d been sleeping for about ten minutes.”

Gordon padded over to the bed and sat on John’s swivel chair, swirling around to face him. “You been stargazing, Johnny? You know dad wanted you to rest, right?”

“I know, I know, I just... sort of... got carried away.” he chuckled before breaking into a cough.

Scott patted his back. “So turned in at 4:50am.”

“Yeah, yeah...”

“Do you feel any better today? You sound a bit better, anyway.” Gordon said.

“I do, thanks.” John sipped his tea. “Hey, this is good. You make it?” he looked at Scott, who shook his head.

“Compliments of Kyrano.”

“Guy’s a genius.”

“That he is. What are you doing up, anyway, Gordon?” Scott turned to the redhead.

“I was about to go for a swim when Alan distracted me. His alligator’s gone missing.”

“Mr Snaps?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s serious! He could bite someone.”

Gordon yawned. “Yeah, that’s what Alan said.”

“How did it escape?”

“Alan’s crap at maintaining his tank so he broke free.”

“Sounds about right.”

“We’ve gotta go find it!” Scott stood up, pushing John down when the blonde also tried to stand. “You stay there. Us naval men will deal with this.”

“My heroes.” John snorted. “You’ll need all the luck you can get. You know how curious that croc is.”

“It’s an alligator.”

“I know what it is.” John deadpanned. “I just happen to like alliteration.”

“Nerd.” Gordon narrowly avoided a pillow being thrown at his head. 

“Come on, Gordon. Let’s go save Alan.”

“Save Alan?”

“Yeah. Dad’ll flip if he finds out about this.”

“Fair point.”

The two men left John’s room, making their way down to Alan’s. They shortly came upon their panicked brother standing in the doorway of Virgil’s bedroom.

“Al?” Gordon whispered.

Scott pulled Alan back. “Are you crazy? You know he gets into one of his moods if you interrupt his sleep!”

Alan moved a shaky finger out towards the bed. “L-Look.”

Scott and Gordon followed his finger to see Mr Snaps curled up at the foot of Virgil’s bed, sleeping alongside the artist.

“Ah.”

“This may pose a problem.”

“Where’s my phone, I gotta take a picture!” Gordon grinned, unpocketing his phone to do just that.

“Gordon!” Scott hissed. “This is serious!”

“He’s gonna freak!”

“Just don’t wake him up!”

“You found the alligator yet?” came a cheerful voice from behind them. Scott turned to glare at John.

“You should be in bed!”

“Shush, you’ll wake him up!” Alan whined.

“Who? Virgil? Or Mr Snaps?”

“Virgil would be the deadlier option.”

John observed the situation. “Oh cripes, I see what you mean.”

“Any ideas, genius?” Scott asked.

“Don’t wake him up.” John smirked.

“Other than that?” Scott turned to the others.

“We could throw a net at him?” suggested Gordon.

“We don’t have a net to hand.” Alan groaned.

“How about a blanket?” Gordon offered.

“We don’t have a blanket to hand either.”

“Well gee Alan, if you’re gonna be a negative Nancy then why don’t you come up with something yourself?” sniped Gordon loudly, causing the others to hush him.

Virgil murmured in his sleep.

“Maybe we should get Kyrano?” Alan asked. “He knows how to handle wild animals.”

“Maybe YOU should get Kyrano since it was YOU who got us into this mess!” Gordon accused.

Alan glared at Gordon. “Fine. I’ll take my time, too. Anything to delay you from getting into the pool.”

“I’ll go.” Gordon quickly replied, darting off to find the manservant.

“How’d you do that?” Scott turned to Alan.

“He’s grumpy because he wants to go swimming. He’s easy to manipulate when he’s like this.” Alan chuckled.

“I think we’ve underestimated how devious you are, sprout.” Scott ruffled Alan’s blonde curls. “I’ll have to keep that in mind...”

“What are you guys doing in my room?” Virgil’s hoarse voice interrupted them. “I’m trying to sleep.” 

“Oh fudge.”

“Err...”

“Morning, Virg.” Scott bit his lip. “How are you?”

“Oh I’m just dandy. Struggled to get to sleep last night and now you’ve woken me up early!” Virgil rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Why are you all here? Did something happen?”

“Sorta...”

Virgil became more alert, noticing there was one brother missing. “Where’s Gordon? Is he alright?”

“He’s gone to get Kyrano.”

“Huh? Why?” he tried sitting up, but found his covers were weighed down.

“You may not wanna do that.” John warned.

Virgil looked down the foot of his bed and immediately froze. His covers were weighed down because Alan’s little alligator was sleeping on them. Disturbed by how long the intruder could have possibly been laying there for, he slowly turned towards his youngest brother. “Alan... you have exactly three seconds to explain.”

“Don’t move, Virg. Whatever you do, don’t move!” 

“Oh that’s real funny.” Virgil snapped, jolting a little when he saw the alligator’s little head pop up. “Don’t just stand there like lemons, do something!”

“We are doing something. We’re waiting for Kyrano.” Alan couldn’t help but grin.

Virgil shot Alan a deathly glare before turning to his older brothers. “You two better get the eulogy ready because when I get out of this, he’s going to die.”

Alan felt his smile slip. He briefly considered consulting his father and asking to start his stint in Thunderbird 5 early. 

The alligator stood up and peered up at Virgil, who blanched at the attention. Although brave in the face of danger, the artist wasn’t overly fond of alligators after seeing Scott and Alan almost get killed by giant mutant versions of them. 

Mr Snaps was oblivious to his fear and padded up the bed covers. Virgil stiffened. 

“What do I do to get him off me?” Virgil cried, slowly moving away from the approaching alligator. “Scott!”

Scott moved over to the foot of the bed and tried leaning over to grab the reptile, but it turned and hissed at him. “Okay, bad idea. I don’t want to upset the guy.”

“Can’t you do anything, Alan? He’s your pet, you should know how to handle him.” John reprimanded.

Alan folded his arms. “Normally he just stays in his tank, eats his food and drinks his water. This is new to me too, y’know.”

“Please get him off me.” Virgil whispered harshly. “I don’t want to make any sudden movements.”

“Is everything alright, boys?” came Kyrano’s soft-spoken voice.

“Aww, he wants to snuggle!” Gordon laughed at Virgil’s new predicament.

“Kyrano, you’re a lifesaver!” Alan cried, flinging himself over to the servant. “Mr Snaps escaped his tank, decided to have a nap on Virgil’s bed and now he’s stuck!”

“Leave it to me, Mister Alan.”

The brothers watched as Kyrano walked over to Virgil’s bed and calmly scooped the alligator into his arms. He then wrapped him in a bundle using the blanket he’d brought. “Are you okay now, Mister Virgil?”

Virgil relaxed in bed, the tension dissipating from his body. “I’m better now Kyrano. Thanks for your help!”

Kyrano bowed his head, then addressed Alan. “I will take your alligator down to Mr Brains’ laboratory. He will temporarily house it while he fixes the tank.”

“Thanks Kyrano.” Alan replied sheepishly. 

Kyrano smiled and carried Mr Snaps away. 

“Well that was easy enough.” John yawned. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Night John.”

“Morning John.” Gordon waved his brother off. “Can I go now? The pool is calling me.” he asked, already beginning to strip off.

“Wait until you’re at the pool!” Scott admonished, placing his palm on the back of Gordon’s head and pushing him out of the room.

“Oh Alan?”

Before Virgil could say anything else, Alan had bolted out of the room, pushing past Gordon and Scott before heading down towards Thunderbird 3’s silo, Virgil in hot pursuit. 

Gordon started to cheer for the artist. “Go get him Virgil! Make it snappy!”

After staring blankly at one another for a few moments, they burst out laughing.

“See you later, alligator!”

“In a while, crocodile!”


End file.
